1. Field of the Invention
This invention has as its object a unit for assembly of a motor vehicle body element and relates more particularly to the automated assembly on a transfer line of an approximately plane large-sized body element.
2. Discussion of the Background
Assembly of a large-sized motor vehicle body element, such as, for example, a side panel, requires that various operations such as, for example, numerous welding tacks be performed either by a robot or manually in a succession of work stations. It is easy to understand that making numerous tacks on a large-sized, approximately plane element is very difficult when these tacks are distributed over the periphery of the body element and the latter is positioned in a horizontal plane approximately parallel to the floor; these difficulties in access have numerous drawbacks both in terms of the safety of personnel making the tacks farthest from the position that he occupies and in terms of welding robots that must operate over great distances. The necessity of transferring the body element successively from one work station to the next with a lengthwise transfer device such as, for example, a bar transfer device so far has required the body element to be kept in a plane parallel to the horizontal plane of the floor with all the accompanying drawbacks that have just been mentioned.